THE BEST, MOST NUMBER ONE, OF ALL TIME. EVER.
While waiting in the hotel lobby when I visited Boston earlier this year, I found myself flipping through one of those innocuous hotel magazines. The type of magazine that is stuffed with things to do and places to go amongst the advertisements. Given that it was a magazine in a hotel for people passing through, the number of Realtors advertising in it was a bit puzzling, but hey, that is what we do.
What struck me was the number of Realtors proclaiming themselves as #1 in some form or another.
"No one sells more than ____!!!"
Gold Medal winner for 4 years straight (2014 to 2018), you can trust me. I promise.
First, these might all be legitimate great Realtors who love what they do and take great care of their clients. What was notable though was the vagueness of their claims. One simply said they’re #1. That’s it. No qualifier, no definition of what they are currently holding the number one position for. Simply put, they were #1.
This is not unique to the real estate industry. Insurance, restaurants and auto dealerships spring to mind. But wow, do we Realtors enjoy telling everyone where we rank in our respective worlds. And, wow, can we get creative.
With the massive growth in teams within our industry, the qualification of team ranking is a puzzler. You’ll see promotions about a team being #1, which raises a question amongst all the others: How many people are on the team?
Team A has 18 members and sold 298 homes last year. Team B has 3 members and sold 84. Team A sold more homes, so therefore, it must be better. Right?
What if there was data that showed transactions per team member?
No one made more burgers than McDonalds last year so they’re number one. In fact, they sold more than 4x the second place finisher (source: Statista). However, in the conversation of “Best Burgers in Town”, does McDonalds appear on the list?
And yes, this gets into subjective versus objective, but you get the gist.
If you were one of the clients of Team A or Team B, would their ranking as number one have any relevance to your experience? Or is it only a factor in the circumstances surrounding your decision on who you hire?
Does the burger taste better because they sold the most last year? Or does it taste better because you really enjoyed it and the experience was polished? Tough to say, as again, this gets into the subjective, meaning the experience that you experienced. Maybe you just really love a Big Mac!
As a quick side note, if you've read Simon Sinek's brilliant book Infinite Game, you will have read quite a lot on this concept. The person in pursuit of the next award is playing a finite game, which focusses their attention on the next thing; the next deal or the next burger.
The person (Realtor) playing an infinite game is focussed on building a legacy. They see the big picture. Their mission is to grow a group of advocates who know, trust, and turn to them for anything related to what it is the person does. Awards are irrelevant, or, at most, a nice surprise that gets stored in a box.
The point is this.
As word-of-mouth spreads and actual experiences determine our decisions, the real estate industry still seems to be determined to let you know, the consumer, know how they are number one, the top ranked, the gold plated, the specialist and that they, in fact, are who you should hire. Regardless of all qualifying criteria. It’s them.
If that floats your boat and gives you the confidence to proceed, then that is great, but perhaps there should be more thought going into who you hire to sell your home, aside from proclamations made to the universe.
Sincerely,
Your Number One Team(*)